Double amputee is undefeated

Navy bomb tech won't slow down after losing legs in February

Chris Andrieu lost his legs in Afghanistan to an IED explosion in February of 2013. On October 13, 2013, he will ride his bike from Los Angeles to San Diego, to raise money and awareness for the EOD Warrior Foundation.

Chris Andrieu lost his legs in Afghanistan to an IED explosion in February of 2013. On October 13, 2013, he will ride his bike from Los Angeles to San Diego, to raise money and awareness for the EOD Warrior Foundation.

Navy doctors told him it would take two weeks simply to walk without the support of parallel bars.

Chris Andrieu looked down at what the bomb left of his legs.

A half-hour later, he ditched the bars. Within a month, his crutches were history.

Now, just eight months after his legs were amputated above the knee, the Navy bomb technician hopped on a bike this weekend and pedalled 160 miles in a charity ride known as EOD Undefeated.

It seems like a blink-of-the-eye recovery for the 27-year-old San Diegan. But it has not been a pain-free road for Andrieu, who did one of the more-dangerous jobs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: bomb duty.

At least 125 U.S. military bomb technicians have been killed in the line of duty since September 2001, according to the EOD Warrior Foundation. (Explosive ordnance disposal is the military term for bomb handling.)

And 149, like Andrieu, have lost legs or arms since 2007.

An unknown number of others have come home with an invisible wound -- traumatic brain injury, caused by the concussion of blasts.

“I hated sitting there in the hospital. The hospital was probably the worst thing,” Andrieu said. “I didn’t want to sit there any longer. I complained every day to them about when I could go outside.”

The Undefeated ride began in Culver City Saturday morning and ends in Point Loma Sunday around noon. Andrieu hadn’t been on a bike since high school.

“I just thought it would be challenging. I just figured I’d try it,” he said, adding, “I know it’s going to suck toward the end.”

He remembers the day in February. It was his third deployment, second to Afghanistan, since joining the Navy in 2007.

His job was to patrol with ground forces. When they came across a roadside bomb, Andrieu would destroy it. He’d already bested a couple of devices that day. Then one got by him.

He stepped on the pressure plate, and the explosive detonated. Andrieu remained conscious through the whole thing, until the medevac aircraft got him to doctors.

Now, back at his house in Clairemont, training on his bike, he somehow maintains a buoyant attitude.

This photo of San Diego Navy bomb specialist Chris Andrieu shows him on a training run prior to his injury.
— Courtesy of Chris Andrieu

This photo of San Diego Navy bomb specialist Chris Andrieu shows him on a training run prior to his injury.
/ Courtesy of Chris Andrieu

“A lot of EOD guys are like, ‘I don’t see how you are so happy. I would be the meanest, grumpiest person. I’d be yelling at everybody,’ ” Andrieu said.

“That’s just not me. We’ve met other people that are angry and think they deserve certain things because they don’t have legs, or whatever,” he said. “But I chose this job, and I loved the time I was in it and all the stuff I’ve done. It’s stuff people won’t do in an entire lifetime.”

Andrieu’s buddy Casey Braden lives with him and trains with him. They went through bomb school together.

“He’s always been a happy, positive guy,” Braden said. “It helped out a lot, him having that attitude.”

Cmdr. Kevin Childre is a Navy bomb officer in San Diego. In 2009, he started the Undefeated Ride to raise money for his wounded brothers-in-arms.

He has watched Andrieu deal with his injury since the first days at the Balboa Park naval hospital.

“Chris has defied odds in a lot of ways. He was able to stand up and walk on his legs right away. While that’s not completely unheard of, it was certainly an indicator of what was to come,” Childre said.

“When he woke up in the hospital after his surgery, he didn’t go into a sense of depression, which happens a lot. There are some very sad stories out there of people not doing great,” the bomb officer said.

“I am certain that this incredible confidence, this sense of humor, this personality we see — you know there are moments of depression. But they haven’t ruled his life.”

But there are things that Andrieu would like to change.

Right now, he can’t wear pants.

His prostheses have to extend far up his thighs, so he can control them when walking. That might change when his leg muscles rebuild.

“Being able to walk around and kind of look normal would be one of my goals,” said the sailor, who let his military buzz cut grow out into wild-man curls.

“I don’t know, though, I don’t really care that people can see that I have prosthetics on. For one thing, they are nicer” to him.

Andrieu loved to run, even 50 miles a week. Now walking distances is painful.

On Memorial Day, he walked a three-mile event, his first since the injury. The sailor made it, but his legs swelled up from the effort. He couldn’t wear his prostheses for several days.

Still, in November he intends to run the Tough Mudder race in Temecula. It’s 10 miles of obstacles, such as wall climbs and tunnel crawling.

And, there’s soccer. Andrieu played as a kid. But he can’t figure out how to make it work, so far.

“I want to play soccer. I’ve seen double amputees. But they are on double crutches running around the field, so they can use one leg to kick the ball,” he said.

“I want to be able to run and kick the ball, also. I’ve asked a couple different prosthetists, and they don’t know anyone who’s done it.”

The people at the EOD Warrior Foundation are trying to help Andrieu in his new life.

Through partners, they got him a fancy Litespeed bike that can accept prosthetic legs.

The EOD Undefeated ride raises money for the foundation.

Celebration

There will be a public celebration of the end of the Undefeated ride from noon to 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Ingram Plaza in Liberty Station. For more information on the organization, go to eodride.org.

The event started in San Diego, a hub for Navy EOD, and now it is also held in Florida and Virginia. And bomb technicians deployed around the world join in by riding 160 miles wherever they are stationed, including Afghanistan and Bahrain.

The Virginia-based EOD Warrior Foundation raised $310,000 last year and hopes to bring in $395,000 this year. The nonprofit group makes grants to wounded bomb technicians and their families — such as renovating the kitchen in Andrieu’s house so he can continue to cook for himself.

Childre said he has seen the attitudes of injured people improve because of events like the Undefeated Ride and Ride 2 Recovery, which hosts a cycling trip from Palo Alto to Santa Monica next week. San Diego is also home to the Challenged Athlete Foundation.

But he — and others in San Diego who work with wounded veterans — wonder if the current level of public interest will be fleeting.

“There’s technology. There are tremendous organizations that want to help them. There’s so much out there right now to help. The worry is what happens later,” Childre said.

“Does it end in two years, or five years?” he asked. “Because they are going to need it for the rest of their lives.”

What Andrieu doesn’t have yet is something to engage his mind. Education is his next step.

“I’m not too sad I lost my legs. I’m able to walk and run,” the sailor said.

“Hopefully there’s something new. Starting college, hopefully I can find something new and interesting that I like.”